Nick Buys TMNT Rights - What Happens to PRiS "Save Our Ship" & "Shell Shocked?"

[Tommy Lawson]

If you haven't heard the news, Nick has purchased the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, likely making PR and TMNT permanent rivals from now on. What I'm wondering is what is going to happen to "Save Our Ship" and "Shell Shocked" from Power Rangers in Space now that Nick has character rights. I believe Disney has the rights to The Next Mutation via the Saban acquisition, which is what the team-up was based off of, but Save Our Ship could probably be edited to exclude the appearance of the TMNT if Disney had to cut the scene to air the episode again.

[Speedbreaker]

Hmmm... I agree that Shell Shocked will probably simply never be re-aired, like A Friend In Need. Save Our Ship will only become a problem if they ever decide to release DVD boxsets of the seasons up to and including Space... did "Alien Rangers of Aquitar Part 1" ever reair, because it has a mention of Prince Dex... but that might not count since Dex is an original character and not the intellectual property of Toei and Ishinomori Production Inc.

[AoBlue]

I thought they'd be obligated to keep things the way they are?

[Tommy Lawson]

I thought they'd be obligated to keep things the way they are?

I believe that only applies to music rights. Nick will soon have character rights ("global intellectual property" as defined in the press release), so that means Nick can complain about their characters being featured on a rival company's show.

However, read between the lines here - $60 million is relatively little for global IP rights, especially considering Disney has been able to acquire companies in multi-billion dollar deals (Fox Family Worldwide and Marvel), and I'm sure if Disney could afford billions for Marvel, they could have spent a little less than $100 million for the TMNT rights if they really wanted to, but chose not to. That to me tells me that Disney believes Power Rangers is the stronger property in comparison to TMNT, especially from a merchandising standpoint.

[Cmdr Crayfish]

Considering Disney had broadcast rights to Shell Shocked as of two years ago, it seems to me that the legalities of broadcasting those two episodes had been negotiated by Disney with Mirage after the Saban contract for NT:TNM had already expired. Since the contract would remain valid for however long it stipulated regardless of who bought out Mirage and since I doubt either party particularly CARES...

[Huzzah]

Considering Disney had broadcast rights to Shell Shocked as of two years ago, it seems to me that the legalities of broadcasting those two episodes had been negotiated by Disney with Mirage after the Saban contract for NT:TNM had already expired. Since the contract would remain valid for however long it stipulated regardless of who bought out Mirage and since I doubt either party particularly CARES...

I agree, both companies probably really don't care all that much, at least on this front...

[Quark]

Nick, huh? I rather like this development.

[Huzzah]

Nick, huh? I rather like this development.

I totally think it's not a bad deal. I mean the only way a Saturday morning cartoon can survive in an age where Saturday morning cartoons are obsolete is to get to a major network, especially one that specializes in animation. Plus Nickelodeon has proven their merit with computer animated properties (which the new show is supposed to be) I mean some of those computer animated cartoons could easily stand face to face against the stuff a lot of major studios pass off as features. Plus anyone who has seen Avatar or Wolverine and the X-Men knows that Nickelodeon can handle a franchise in a serious manner.

[Cmdr Crayfish]

I'm baffled by why Peter Laird chose to do this now, especially after finally spending the time and money to lock down the rights to the Fred Wolf characters. Mirage finally owns Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, etc. We were finally seeing them, albeit in cameos, in the comic books. Now Mirage has sold their only viable property? So what was the point, to get Forever War produced (thus finally tying off the Archie TMNT Adventures book after seventeen years) and Turtles Forever animated?

[Huzzah]

Well Nick purchased the globalization rights, which would mean the rights on international fronts more that anything, right? Mirage still has its characters, and they'll continue their publishing on the comic front. Nickelodeon/Paramount though now has the distributing rights as far as the various medias go...I mean I could be completely wrong, I mean I really know very little about how these things work. Mirage doesn't even do monthly publishing (or even comic book shop style releases) any longer, at least in regards to the Ninja Turtle franchise. Though I really do hope to see the Ninja Turtles Forever...